Thursday, April 4, 2013

Setting up MariaDB Galera Cluster from Scratch

Okay, this one is a little fun for the techie crowd out there. Nobody can say this blog isn't eclectic at least.

MariaDB is the new database program from the folks who created MySQL, arguably the most popular database on the planet. It was created when Oracle gained control of MySQL because, well, Oracle. Galera is a multi-master "live" database that sits on top of MariaDB. The instructions on the web for installing Galera that I've been able to find are woefully inadequate, and presume a certain level of "already installed and configured".

This instruction set is designed to walk through the install procedure from start to end. Text written in courier is meant to be typed in the command line.

You're going to want to set up three servers to get this going (this is where VMware is very handy).

[mysqld]query_cache_size=0binlog_format=ROWdefault_storage_engine=innodbinnodb_autoinc_lock_mode=2# this has to be specified for xtrabackup to workdatadir=/var/lib/mysqlwsrep_provider=/usr/lib64/galera/libgalera_smm.sowsrep_provider_options="gcache.size=32G; gcache.page_siz=1G"# Address of first server started in cluster;# comment this line out in my.cnf of first serverwsrep_cluster_address=gcomm://10.0.1.190# This is just an informational string, just make sure# it matches on all clustered machineswsrep_cluster_name='gamaria1'# This is the address of the local machinewsrep_node_address='10.0.1.192'# This is just an informational string# to describe the local machinewsrep_node_name='node3'wsrep_sst_method=xtrabackupwsrep_sst_auth=<user>:<password>

Replace <user> and <password> with the appropriate username and password. When configuring the first node, be sure to set up the appropriate user profile and access permissions. After you've set up the first node, the other nodes get the security information automatically. How cool is that? (Be warned: this bit grants access to the database from any machine on the network...replace % with the IP address of an appropriate machine if you don't want that!)Sign into the local MariaDB:mysql -u rootCREATE USER 'monty'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'some_pass'; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'monty'@'%' WITH GRANT OPTION;6. Disable the FirewallNot the best solution, but the cluster seems to use more than just port 4567. Haven't quite worked this one out yet. Suggestions?service iptables stop chkconfig iptables off7. Edit script on all nodes to prevent cluster from erroring out on startup

For all nodes, start the server as the mysql user: su mysql - Don't forget the - at the end! That forces the proper environment. First server: mysqld --wsrep_cluster_address=gcomm://As long as my.cnf is correct (wsrep_cluster_address variable), you can start other machines with: mysqld

A couple of notes:Set up the first server following these instructions, get it working, then set up each server in turn, following 1 through 8 again, but making the appropriate mods for each.

Start the first server, let it get to "waiting for connections", then start the other servers.If you shut down the first server for any reason, when you start it up you must use this:mysqld --wsrep_cluster_address=gcomm://address_of_another_serverOr you're pooched and will have to shut them all down and start the boot sequence from scratch. Yeah, I made that mistake a few times.

That's it! Kind of. I may have glossed over a couple of points. As I discover problems with these instructions I'll update the post.

Last, but certainly not least, I can't take credit for these instructions beyond typing them here. Credit goes to John Flaskay, my resident expert-in-everything-linux/security/tcp/etc!

I have started server A but it not have any massage like "waiting for connections" , after I start mysql on server B, nothing any happen too. (server B I use command : mysqld --wsrep_cluster_address=gcomm://192.168.0.2 on user mysql)

What about possibly using haproxy or something as the gcomm address to ensure a server can always hit a live machine as it starts up? What port does gcomm use to connect? Is such a thing possible just for automation sake?

What about possibly using haproxy or something as the gcomm address to ensure a server can always hit a live machine as it starts up? What port does gcomm use to connect? Is such a thing possible just for automation sake?